Celtic Ray pub's painstaking rebirth

At one point a few years ago, after Hurricane Charley destroyed half of his bar and sent his life on “a total downward spiral,” Kevin Doyle had no phone, no car insurance, no electricity and was being evicted from his apartment.

The owner of the Celtic Ray Irish pub and restaurant in downtown Punta Gorda describes it as “the lowest point in my life in every way.”

Struggling to stay afloat after taking on too much debt to preserve the Celtic Ray’s storm-damaged building, Doyle had to sell the business. He stayed on as manager for a while but says he was eventually fired by the new owner and escorted off the property by police. He lost his home to foreclosure. He took cold showers in a rented condo for three months after the electricity was cut off for lack of payment.

Today, though, Doyle, 61, is again behind the bar of the Celtic Ray after winning the property back through the courts. He even purchased a condo last year next to the one he was evicted from in 2009

Doyle’s story of losing his business and nearly everything else of value in his life, then clawing it all back, is one of the more remarkable feats of rebirth in a town that saw many after being leveled by Charley’s power.

Only now — a decade later — has Doyle fully recovered from the afternoon of Aug. 13, 2004, when

Kevin Doyle and his son Max enjoy some Guinness together inside their bar the Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda. The bar was destroyed by Hurricane Charley back on Aug. 13, 2004. The bar has expanded and even has an upstairs now and business is better than ever 10 years later. (Staff photo by Rachel S. O'Hara)

Charley barreled up Charlotte Harbor and took dead aim at the Celtic Ray’s historic building. Business is better than ever these days. The hurricane-damaged structure is finally restored and Doyle laughs at his good fortune between sips of Guinness.

A plucky Irish immigrant who retains the accent of his birthplace, Doyle always believed he could recover. But for a long time it seemed like the odds were against him.

Doyle moved to Punta Gorda in 1981 after visiting a sister and falling in love with the area. He had long dreamed of opening his own pub, but spent years working a variety of jobs before taking the plunge in 1997 with the Celtic Ray.

The bar business was never easy but Doyle was keeping his head above water when Charley struck, plunging him into the deep end of financial distress.

Doyle, his son and five friends arrived at the bar with sandbags the morning of the storm, worried more about flooding in the low-lying neighborhood than wind. By the time they realized the hurricane was headed for Punta Gorda, and not Tampa, it was too late to evacuate. They decided to ride it out in the bar.

Between rounds of beer and darts they grew increasingly concerned about the powerful winds. The bar’s three big plate glass windows began to flex in and out.

“They looked like they were breathing,” Doyle said.

High above Punta Gorda, Florida, Wayne Allen, left, and Travis Winesett work to restore the brick wall of The Celtic Ray on April 13, 2006. (Herald-Tribune archive)

Pieces of the roof and the air conditioning unit blew by. Doyle watched one of the windows pop out with the frame still attached. Then another window came off. Rain poured into the building. The paint on the drywall “bubbled up like water balloons.”

The group of seven took refuge in a bathroom with no windows. After the storm, they walked around downtown Punta Gorda examining the damage and went to check on their homes. When Doyle came back to the bar at 8:30 a.m. “it seemed even worse than we remembered,” he said.

The older, two-story brick section of the building was in disarray, with damage throughout. A newer concrete block addition attached to the brick structure was virtually unscathed.

As he sifted through the debris, Doyle was surprised to hear the phone ring. Phone service was knocked out throughout the city. Add in a supply of gas for cooking and fully-stocked beer coolers and Doyle had all the ingredients to stay open.

The Celtic Ray became a community hub. People came by to grab a beer and some hot food and use the phone. The bar never closed, a fact that still gives Doyle “a huge sense of pride.”

For weeks “we were slammed to capacity, 60 people inside and 150 outside at all times,” Doyle said.

The brick section of the structure had to be cordoned off, though. Doyle leased the building. The damage was so extensive the owner wanted to tear it down.

“I offered to buy it to save it," Doyle said. “But of course that market value was at its highest then.”

After borrowing money to buy the historic building, Doyle found himself too broke to make the needed repairs.

Then the Great Recession came and Doyle couldn’t keep up with his loan payments. He ended up selling the property and the business with the understanding — he says — that he and his son would stay on as managers. That didn’t last long, he said.

The new owners “thought they could save a lot of money if they didn’t have to pay myself and my son to run the place,” Doyle said. “They brought the police in to trespass us off the property if we didn’t leave.”

That was the day before Thanksgiving 2007. Doyle briefly moved to far flung Wauchula in Hardee County to help a friend open a bar. He lost his home to foreclosure and slowly exhausted his savings, until he was flat broke and facing eviction from the rented condo.

“Everything that could go wrong did,” Doyle said. “If I’d had a dog it would have got run over.”

Through it all, Doyle felt like the Celtic Ray was still rightfully his.

“It was like somebody had kidnapped my child,” he said.

Inside the Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda. The bar was destroyed by Hurricane Charley back on August 13, 2004. The bar has expanded and even has an upstairs now and business is better than ever 10 years after Hurricane Charley. (Staff photo by Rachel S. O'Hara)

In fact, Doyle did have some legal rights to the property. The new owner, Gary L. Hopkins Sr., took over Doyle’s original loan, but the sale price for the property and the business was higher than the loan and Doyle did not receive cash, instead agreeing to be paid in installments through a second mortgage.

When those payments never came, Doyle moved to foreclose on the second mortgage, which was secured by the property. He hired an attorney and racked up big legal bills. The case moved slowly thanks to the backlog of foreclosures during the Recession. A year went by. Then another. The uncertainty took a toll.

“Toward the end I started to lose faith,” said Doyle’s son, Max, who urged his father to forget about the case and move on.

But Doyle had little else to hold onto, so he kept fighting, convincing his lawyer to ignore the mountain of unpaid bills.

“I have never seen somebody that far down on their luck in terms of business and finances

Outside the Celtic Ray in Punta Gorda. The bar was destroyed by Hurricane Charley back on Aug. 13, 2004. The bar has expanded and even has an upstairs now and business is better than ever. (Staff photo by Rachel S. O'Hara)

who absolutely had total faith that he was going to come back,” Ross said. “I mean he was essentially homeless as well as jobless but he was just absolutely convinced he was going to put it all back together."

Doyle’s first act as owner: Removing the Bud Light taps and replacing them with the imported beers - Guinness, Harp, Newcastle, Boddingtons — that the establishment had been known for. Shortly after Doyle regained ownership of the Celtic Ray in February 2010 he secured a loan to restore the historic brick section of the building, which had sat vacant for six years.

The refurbished structure reopened in the spring of 2012. It has a classic pub look: Bare brick walls, an abundance of varnished wood, stained glass windows. There are bars upstairs and downstairs, a stage for bands and food specials written in brightly colored chalk. Business nearly tripled within a few months.

Today, the Celtic Ray is “pretty secure for the first time ever,” Doyle said.

The whole ordeal still seems surreal.

“Even today I walk in some days and say: ‘Wow, we pulled it off,’” he said.

The Celtic Ray is hosting a party today for the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Charley.

The storm and its aftermath were hell, but in the end it was worth it, Doyle said. He persevered and preserved a historic building that is a Punta Gorda landmark and entertainment destination. And business is better than ever.

“If things hadn’t happened the way they did I don’t know that we’d be where we are now," he said.

Last modified: August 11, 2014
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